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Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

nytimes.com

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Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#181

Post by sandov »

sbov wrote: post #90

I turned off almost all tracking in Android a while ago, but never scanned the data it collected. I recently looked at what data was associated with my Google account, and there I saw: every voice command I ever issued my phone, and when I used what app. I could see at 9:30am I opened my camera app. I can see I viewed a notification at 9:45am. And so on. I deleted it all, but my guess is it probably still lives somew…

Have you tried Lineage OS?. It's an open source Android distribution, it doesn't include Google's proprietary stuff (Google Play services and such, even though you can include it if you really want to) and works surprisingly well.

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#182

Post by hopler »

caymanjim wrote: post #104
gist wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even without Google or Apple, they police have the cell service providers Important to keep in mind that additional information provides corroboration at least in the mind of the jury and also detracts from issues regarding the information. This is illustrated by one of those Datelines' (or 48 Hours don't remember) that I saw recently. They exhumed a body to determine if the deceased was buried with contact lenses…

They need to bend over backwards with evidence because terrible shows like CSI and NCIS have convinced jurors that crime labs can perform magic and that they should acquit despite a preponderance of evidence unless there's a giant stack of lab reports and a manic pixie dream nerd testifying.

The standard in criminal law is "beyond a reasonable doubt", which is a higher standard than "preponderance if evidence" which only satisfies civil claims.

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#183

Post by hopler »

bookofjoe wrote: post #95
akira2501 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to be this off topic, but also 'Heist' is a great movie which features a lot of social engineering and exploitation tactics to drive the plot.

There are 2 films with this title, from 2001 and 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heist_(2001_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heist_(2015_film) Both have stellar casts.

2001 had a much higher acclaimed script and was more appreciated by viewers

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#184

Post by ddalex »

UweSchmidt wrote: post #99
kyrra wrote: post #6

Even without Google or Apple, they police have the cell service providers. In the case of the Austin bomber from a year ago[0], police got cell tower records from the multiple bombings and figured out who was at all the locations. Cell phones are little trackers unless you turn them off or don't carry one. [0] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna85...

Next level analysis could take into account which/whose phones are (untypically) switched off when the bombs went off. Next next level would take into account phones that are "left at home" - where the phone is not in use and not moving around according to usual movement patterns. I would guess that there is already substantial research done on exactly this, and that it is possible to detect many deviations of normal…

Absence of a signal is a signal in itself.

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#185

Post by sjwright »

Phlarp wrote: post #151
Jerry2 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if you look at the study [0] you can see that you can get rid of the most of the tracking by disabling App Background Refresh, removing the Google apps and by running a content blocker. If you do all those steps, Big Google won't be getting much identifiable data about you. > Both Android and Chrome send data to Google even in the absence of any user interaction. Our experiments show that a dormant, stationary…

It's a shame google maps is so much better than the alternatives, but it's probably somewhat related to the amount of data they collect.

But think about that for a second.

Apple spends something like 1 billion dollars a year on Apple Maps. There is no strategic reason for them to do maps. They aren't making money from it. They are anonymising the statistics they gather. They chose to spend this insane amount of money doing something completely foreign to them just so their customers don't have to use Google Maps.

Let that sink in.

It's incredible.

As for the quality of Apple Maps—yes, it was rubbish when it first launched but today it is usually (depending on your city and your specific usages) within cooee of equally good. In fact I tend to find Apple Maps often superior for walking and public transport directions in an unfamiliar city.

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#187

Post by SquareWheel »

shadowprofile76 wrote: post #180
SquareWheel wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do I buy this user data? I would like to purchase it. dleslie claims they will sell it to "anyone willing to pay for that information". > it's literally what google claim to do It's literally the opposite of what Google claims to do. https://safety.google/privacy/ads-and-data/

You buy this information indirectly any time you use any of Google's targeted advertising services. And yes, anyone can buy into it.

>buy this information indirectly...

Which means what?

If you aren't actually getting user information, then simply put you aren't buying user information. Anything else is twisting words to distort their meanings.

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#189

Post by JohnFen »

sbov wrote: post #90

I turned off almost all tracking in Android a while ago, but never scanned the data it collected. I recently looked at what data was associated with my Google account, and there I saw: every voice command I ever issued my phone, and when I used what app. I could see at 9:30am I opened my camera app. I can see I viewed a notification at 9:45am. And so on. I deleted it all, but my guess is it probably still lives somew…

> It really made me want to just exit this whole smartphone shitfest

Yes, this is why I've decided to bail on the smartphone nonsense as well.

To make the problem worse, it isn't just Google you need to protect yourself from. You also need to protect yourself from the vast majority of apps that are out there as well.

It's become an intractable security nightmare, and I no longer consider smartphones as fit for purpose.

Re: Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police

#190

Post by JohnFen »

Phlarp wrote: post #151
Jerry2 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if you look at the study [0] you can see that you can get rid of the most of the tracking by disabling App Background Refresh, removing the Google apps and by running a content blocker. If you do all those steps, Big Google won't be getting much identifiable data about you. > Both Android and Chrome send data to Google even in the absence of any user interaction. Our experiments show that a dormant, stationary…

It's a shame google maps is so much better than the alternatives, but it's probably somewhat related to the amount of data they collect.

> It's a shame google maps is so much better than the alternatives

I don't need the best possible mapping application, I just (occasionally) need one that's "good enough". More and more, for me, "good enough" means keeping a static image of the maps of the area that I'll be in.

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